Experts Say Macedonia to Enter EU in 2012
| 24 April 2008 |
Skopje _ The European Union should set 2012 as the year in which Macedonia will join the EU, a group of influential European experts and former statesmen have said.
The plan is “incredibly ambitious” but “realistic”, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, ECFR, Daniel Korski, told Macedonia’s Kanal 5 TV on Wednesday.
He noted that Macedonia needed first to solve its vexed name dispute with Greece and complete its tight reform schedule.
The ECFR also ecommends that Croatia should be admitted in 2010 followed by Albania in 2011.
The council suggests that the EU should redefine its position on the Balkans by separating the Balkan countries into two groups, the Adriatic Group and Central Balkans.
The first group should comprise Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro, as countries that have showed that the EU enlargement agenda can function properly.
The second, group should be comprised of countries that have “stayed immune” to the EU stabilization and association efforts, meaning Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The ECFR says that these have untamed “territorial and ethno-political problems” that continue to stymie their EU progress.
The European Council on Foreign Relations is a pan-European think tank, research institute and advocacy group. Among the founding council members are serving and former heads of government, ministers and parliamentarians, business leaders, distinguished academics, journalists and public intellectuals.
Members include the former Italian prime minister, Giuliano Amato, the former German foreign minister Joska Fisher, the former Finnish president and special envoy to Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari and former European Commissioner on foreign policy Chris Patten of Britain.
The plan is “incredibly ambitious” but “realistic”, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, ECFR, Daniel Korski, told Macedonia’s Kanal 5 TV on Wednesday.
He noted that Macedonia needed first to solve its vexed name dispute with Greece and complete its tight reform schedule.
The ECFR also ecommends that Croatia should be admitted in 2010 followed by Albania in 2011.
The council suggests that the EU should redefine its position on the Balkans by separating the Balkan countries into two groups, the Adriatic Group and Central Balkans.
The first group should comprise Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro, as countries that have showed that the EU enlargement agenda can function properly.
The second, group should be comprised of countries that have “stayed immune” to the EU stabilization and association efforts, meaning Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The ECFR says that these have untamed “territorial and ethno-political problems” that continue to stymie their EU progress.
The European Council on Foreign Relations is a pan-European think tank, research institute and advocacy group. Among the founding council members are serving and former heads of government, ministers and parliamentarians, business leaders, distinguished academics, journalists and public intellectuals.
Members include the former Italian prime minister, Giuliano Amato, the former German foreign minister Joska Fisher, the former Finnish president and special envoy to Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari and former European Commissioner on foreign policy Chris Patten of Britain.
